Coffee Shop On Wheels – How About Parking At a Rest Stop for Weary Travelers?

One thing us retired entrepreneurial company founders like to do is think up new potential start-ups. Luckily for me, I’ve started a little think tank that has several of us on board. Lucky also for you, if you want to start a business, we don’t mind sharing our ideas with you, heck maybe you can get some funding and make a go of it, do something great, fill a niche and be the next successful start-up entrepreneur out there. I wish you well.

Okay so here is a recent idea we came up with, actually it is an old idea, rehashed. There have actually been some franchises that do this. This has a different twist. Do you know how rest stops along the highway sometimes have vendors selling food? Usually, someone has a deal with the state and gets a license to do business there? How about a mobile food truck that serves up Lattes, Mochas and Espresso – high-end coffee?

One of our think tankers suggested we call it “R and R” and try to get it licensed in all states.

Indeed, there are mobile restaurants in every state almost – some have purposely made it tough on the sector due to restaurant industry lobbyists. I like the name idea, and I had once prepared a business plan for my brother’s company – the potential company would have been named Jumping Java – with on-site corporate parking lot delivery. The runners would take the orders and deliver the coffee inside the company. R&R might be a good name, but some people drink coffee to pep-up and not to rest or relax, so that might not be the right name. Unless you told them the name was for “Ramp-up and Race-Forward” or something. Well, it would be a huge logistic nightmare, you’d need commissaries for the mobile units, home bases, required by law.

You’d need permission where to park, licenses in every city, most cities have ordinances for what they might deem street vendors thus, controlling when and where you can set up. Each state is required by law to send it out to bid, and then the lowest common denominator, minority company paying ridiculously low wages would be competing with you while their employees lives 10 people to a house, and they got a 15% bid advantage for being a minority or woman owned business, and an SBA loan, that others could not get.

Then the government would PR the crap out of it telling everyone how some Bozo Congressman was providing jobs. It would be a nightmare to deal with the state. Worse, they often close the rest stops for no reason, and you’d be out of business for that time period. Then there is the crime issue, and angry people that the bathrooms are not cleaned, even though that isn’t your fault. You should see the stuff that goes on at rest stops. Although having someone there selling something does add a level of safety, because people are there.

One think tanker noted; “Sometimes there are people giving free coffee at rest areas trying to make their roads safer.”

Yes, I’ve seen that, and I am in favor of it. Maybe the state would pay for just plain “free black coffee” and you could sell the higher-end coffee drinks or, the state gives you free rent, if you give the cheap black coffee out for free and then are free to sell the expensive stuff. Be Great, Don’t Hesitate.